Japanese emperor prays for war dead

Japan’s Emperor Akihito bowed deeply atop a Saipan cliff where his countrymen plunged to their deaths to avoid capture by US troops and – for the first time - paid his respects today to the Koreans killed on the tiny Pacific island in a key Second World War battle.

On the first trip by a Japanese monarch to a Second World War battle site overseas, Akihito and Empress Michiko visited several memorials around the sun-drenched island honouring Japanese, Americans and local islanders, as well as Koreans forced to serve in the name of his father, the late Emperor Hirohito.